'Life is Sweet' seems to me to be the recurring theme in Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself". Since this is such a long poem,I am referring specifically to the first 6 verses. In the first verse, Whitman is clearly thankful for life in general, and takes time to appreciate his surroundings, “I celebrate myself...I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass...Hoping to cease not till death". Good or bad, he permits himself to enjoy his experience.
What comes to mind in the 2nd verse are not perfumes that are worn, but how this perfume is life itself. It is to be sweet and intoxicating. Everyone should love life "undisguised and naked". Whitman takes the time to see and hear and feel, to be thankful for the little things in life, "The sniff of green leaves...A few light kisses... The play of shine and shade on the trees... The feeling of health...the song of me rising from bed and meeting the sun". Life should be uninhibited; it should be stripped to its bare essentials. Life should not be edited not through someone else's eyes, but through our own. We should be in love with our own life, and enjoy our own surroundings.
But how does a person fully love their life? How do they express it and feel it without sounding self righteous or conceited as Whitman sometimes sounds? First, we need to be secure in ourselves, as Whitman says in verse 3. "Sure as the most certain sure...stout as a horse, affectionate, haughty, electrical...clear and sweet is my soul, and clear and sweet is all that is not my soul... I am satisfied-I see,dance,laugh,sing". When was the last time we stopped and appreciated what we have instead of what we don't have? When was the last time we looked in the mirror and said, "I believe in you my soul"?
Life is full of good and bad as verse 5 points out. However, verse 6 helps us to understand how to love life and ourselves. It starts by loving others, no matter who the are, or where they come from; whether it be, "Kanuck,Tuckahoe,Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I receive them the same". Loving others and the things around us goes hand in hand with loving and accepting ourselves; for without one, the other can not be fully achieved.
Whitman clearly loves himself,and through this, is able to love, except, and appreciate all people and things around him. Life is to be sweet. If it isn't, then we need to step back, peel back the layers that are not, and change what needs to be changed. Life shouldn't suck, it should be cherished. Life is sometimes hard, and sometimes things are easier said than done, but we should strive for the courage to change the things that need to be changed. We should like who stares back at us from the mirror. We sould always be able to say to ourselves, "I believe in you my soul".
Life is Sweet!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
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